Council
Cover Image. Dreaming of the Celestial Mountain. Agnes Conway, 2011.
5. Roundup. Recent exhibitions and projects of note. The latest developments in the arts sector.
5. Column. Mark Fisher.
6. Column. Jonathan Carroll.
8. News. The latest developments in the visual arts sector.
9. Regional Profile. Visual arts resources and activity in Antrim.
13. Art and Politics. Living Museum. Brian Kennedy on a recent trip to visit artists in Syria. (Archived)
14. Project Profile. In to the Light. Fiona Fullam talks to Karen Downey about a new exhibition showcasing the Art Council Collection.
15. Festival. Landscape, Change and Flux. Ciara Peters talks to Gregory McCartney about his role as Curator of the Tulca Festival 2012.
16. How is it Made? A Sleeping Face. Agnes Conway on her recent commission for Marlay Park.
17. Career Development. Some Possible Infinities. Alan Bulfin describes working as an artist in Finland.
18. Education. The Artist’s Apprentice. Lily Power talks to Siobhán Parkinson about a new children’s book inspired by Velázquez’s Las Meninas.
18. Policy. Here and Now. Una Carmody gives findings from a recent study of Irish arts audiences.
19. Critique. Our four-page Critique supplement features six reviews of exhibitions, events, publications and projects – that are either current or have recently taken place in Ireland.
23. Festival. The Art of Communication.Yvonne Cullinan profiles the Trans-Art Festival, Cavan.
24. Residency. Artelier. Nick Kaplony describes the Artelier residency programme, run by ArtQuestUK.
24. Profile. John Carrick. John Beattie profiles Firestation’s….JohnCarrick.
25. Policy. Cultural Strategies. Ray Yeates discusses Dublin City Council’s up coming plans for the arts.
26. Artist-led Project. Subject to Ongoing Change. Fergus Byrne profiles The Performance Collective. (Archived)
27. Advocacy. Issue and Impasse. April Britskion CARFAC’s debate with the National Gallery of Canada.
28. Opportunities. All the lastest grants, awards, exhibition calls and commissions.
30. Debate. Remains of the Present. Michelle Browne reports from performance symposium,’Remnant’.
31. How is it Made? Outside In. Suzanne Mooney describes recent work developed in Seoul and Tokyo.
32. International. Notions of Hospitality. Anne Mullee reports from the 2012 Liverpool Biennial. (Archived)
33. Art in Public. Public art commissions, site-specific works, socially-engaged practices and other forms of art outside the gallery.
34. Regional Contacts. VAI’s Northern Ireland Manager reports from the region.
35. Studio Profile. Sustainable Spaces. Maria Tanner profiles a new studio space in Dungarven,Waterford.
Culture Connects is the culture programme marking Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union 1 January – 30 June 2013.
Culture Ireland has co-ordinated a major programme presenting Irish artists and their works across all Member States, expanding the reach of Irish culture to new audiences, and building on the presence of Irish artists in key European festivals and venues, with a special focus on Brussels, Paris and Berlin.
Nationally, Culture Connects features major events presented by Ireland’s national cultural institutions, such as the Crawford Art Gallery Cork, the National Concert Hall and the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
In addition, the Arts Council has co-ordinated a programme of over 90 contemporary arts events and projects taking place country-wide, which has been financially supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
The first strand of the Arts Council programme is called Local Arts Europe and it encompasses 23 partnership projects led by Local Authority Arts Offices and Ealaín na Gaeltachta that invest in artistic and professional relationships between Ireland and other places in Europe. The second strand of the Arts Council programme is called Féile Festa , which involves over 30 festivals and is all about connecting artists and audiences. In addition, a small number of large-scale festivals, such as the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, that take place during the Presidency period and that have an important role in terms of engaging extensive arts audiences, were invited directly to participate in the Féile Festa strand.
The final strand of the National Culture Programme is called Partners for Imagination and it showcases some of the arts organisations in Ireland that have been exceptionally committed to working across national borders in Europe to the benefit of artists, arts participants and audiences in Ireland.
The visual artists at the heart of Cló Ceardlann na gCnoc studios and gallery in Donegal have worked most recently with partners from Portugal and Greece to run Samkura, a co-operative project supported by the EU Culture Programme. During the Presidency, Cló Ceardlann na gCnoc presents an exhibition programme as well as a series of specialist workshops.
The National Sculpture Factory, in partnership with the Cork Civic Trust, the Cork Vision Centre and in association with the Crawford Art Gallery, presents works by artists featured in United States of Europe, a large scale visual art project brought about through transnational partnership, and supported by the EU Culture Programme.
The Partners for Imagination strand of Culture Connects will also feature networking and professional development events, in particular Visual Artists Ireland’s Get Together 2013, the Informal Meeting of the European Cultural Contact Points, and the Spring Plenary meeting of the IETM international network for contemporary performing arts.
Further information on Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU www.eu2013.ie
Further information on EU support for culture www.ccp.ie
The Arts Council has published a new policy and strategy in the area of Arts and Disability, which will assist it to address issues of equity, access and participation for artists and audiences with disabilities over a five year period. The new policy outlines the Arts Council’s support and understanding of Arts and Disability practice and the make-up of the sector. The policy is built on a set of key values including a commitment to equality and inclusion and recognition of the complexity and diversity of the people and practices involved. The strategy takes a holistic approach with measures designed to mainstream access alongside a series of strategic targeted supports and a programme to build capacity both within the Arts Council and across the arts sector. The publication of the policy and strategy follows a period of development and consultation with key stakeholders over a period of years, which broadened and intensified in 2012 as a means of capturing a wide range of perspectives. It is envisaged that the Arts Council and the sector will work together over the coming years to maximise the effects of the strategy and to inform wider policy and practice. For further information: www.artscouncil.ie/en/areas-of-work/actions/arts-participation-news.aspx
On Friday, December 28th – Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, commenced a three-day visit to China and held a number of engagements of significant cultural and business importance.
He held official talks with the China Minister for Culture, Cai Wu. A Cultural Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is in place between Ireland and China; this meeting discussed the progress made in advancing the cultural links, and exploiting the cultural opportunities, between both countries. In addition, Minister Deenihan raised the possibility of China establishing a cultural centre in Ireland.
Deenihan also discussed business and cultural links and Ireland’s Presidency of the European Council with his counterpart. Minister Deenihan assumed the Chair of the EU Council of Culture Ministers yesterday, January 1st, 2013.
As part of this visit, Minister Deenihan also presented the China Minister for Culture with a gift of an artist residency at Cill Rialaig for a prominent Chinese artist.
A Year in the Arts 2011-2012
The Arts Council recently aunched its Annual Review of funded activities during 2011-12. The Review covers many of the artistic highlights of a year which included the opening of the rebuilt Lyric Theatre and the completion of high-profile public art commissions, ‘Rise’ in Belfast and ‘Mute Meadow’ in Derry~Londonderry, and the birth of a new flagship arts organisation, the Community Arts Partnership. The Cultural Olympiad and Legacy Trust championed the arts and built a lasting artistic legacy across Northern Ireland in the run up to the London 2012 Games, and we followed the progress of our artists and arts organisations as they made further inroads and continued to impress on the world stage.
To download a pdf of the Annual Review 2011-12, click here
The ‘Into the Light‘ exhibitions of works from the Arts Council collection are now running in Crawford Art Gallery, Cork; Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane; Limerick City Gallery of Art; The Model, Sligo.
A major 370 page publication has also been published to coincide with the exhibitions. This is a standalone book, also called Into the Light, which charts the evolution of the visual arts through a significant period in Ireland’s history, from a fledgling state to a culturally confident nation. It features over one hundred full colour illustrations of works from the Arts Council Collection and contains specially commissioned essays by Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith and Diarmaid Ferriter.
The publication features a comprehensive directory of all works held in the Arts Council’s Collection, along with details of vendors from whom the works were bought. The directory also sheds light on the extent of the Collection’s nationwide loan programme and lists the many hundreds of public organisations that have chosen to borrow and present works over the years. Alongside the directory, essays and illustrations there are ‘timelines’ which focus on the development of the Arts Council and state policy on the arts and on Ireland’s emergent visual arts scene over that time.
The publication can be purchased for €40 at any of the exhibiting galleries, in addition to selected bookshops.
For further information on the exhibitions and the accompanying public programmes see the Arts Council’s or the galleries websites.
Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford County Council and the Arts Council have announced that visual artist Sibyl Montague is the recipient of the seventh annual Emerging Visual Artist Award.
The initiative supports promising visual artists in Ireland by providing a monetary prize of €5,000 and a solo exhibition at Wexford Arts Centre. This award is aimed at recognising and supporting the development of committed emerging artists, in kick starting their career and achieving professional recognition. As such, it achieves a core remit of Wexford County Council’s arts strategy by providing professional development supports to emerging artists. Following a national open competition selection process, Montague was selected from over one hundred and twenty submissions received. The submissions were assessed by an independent selection panel, all of which had appropriate expertise in the visual arts.
As the recipient of the award, Montague will be required to create a new body of work during the period of January - December 2013, which will be exhibited at Wexford Arts Centre during January 2014.
For the exhibition at Wexford Arts Centre, Montague will create new work specifically responding to the architecture of the galleries, whilst continuing to re-examine notions of formlessness within different modes of production and media. Engaging an open and experimental approach to making that underlines the performative and durational attributes of formlessness, her aim is to extend her practice to include a live audio/visual element.
Sibyl Montague lives and works in London, and completed an MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2011. Recent exhibitions include Arm around You (solo), Oriel Davies, Wales, 2012; Domestic Temples 2, Clifford Chance, Canary Wharf, London, UK, 2012; Re-animate, Oriel Davies, Wales, UK, 2010; and George Polke, London, UK, 2008. Montague’s work has also been commissioned for the collection of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tazmania. She was shortlisted for the Red Mansion Award in 2012 and other awards include winner of Re-Animate, Oriel Davies Wales in 2010 and emerging artist at Claremorris Open in 2007 which was selected by Ingrid Swenson, PEER, London.
Nineteen groups across Northern Ireland have been awarded grants totalling £141,000 from the Big Lottery Fund and Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Culture for All programme. This small grants funding programme enables communities to play a part in Derry~Londonderry City of Culture 2013.
Application forms and guidance notes are available to download now at: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/northernireland
More info: www.artscouncil-ni.org/news/2012/news15112012e.html
126 needs your help to lobby Galway City Council to come through with funding for 2012. 126 has not yet received its 2012 rental support funding from Galway City Council and cannot get a clear figure as to what they can expect from them. 126 owes €4,500 in rent and on 20 December that will be €5750. 126 is calling for previous board members and membership to make as much noise as possible. Galway City Council closes for Christmas on 16 December. 126 needs you to lobby the local representatives to put pressure on to get the money for this year and make sure they don’t get cut next year as well.
There is a sample letter and contact details for local and national representatives that can be used to lobby for this cause here: http://126gallery.blogspot.ie/
Donegal County Councils Public Art Programme is 21 years old this year and to celebrate and acknowledge this, Donegal County Council is launching the following on Tuesday 4th December at 2pm in the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny and we are inviting you to come.
- Launch of Public Art Plan 2013 – 2017
- Launch of new www.donegalpublicart.ie
- Launch of 21 years on exhibition. (Exhibition continues until 8th Feb 2013)
